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Oil Slick near the Mouth of the Mississippi

This page contains archived content and is no longer being updated. At the time of publication, it represented the best available science. However, more recent observations and studies may have rendered some content obsolete.

On May 8, 2010, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this high-resolution view of the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon leak just off the southern tip of the Mississippi River Delta.

Concentrated patches and streaks of oil appear silvery gray. The blue-green color of the water in the center and upper-right of the image is due to sediment (muddy water flowing into the Gulf from the Mississippi River or sandy sediments churned up by tidal motions) or shallow water over shoals. The wakes of ships and boats create straight white lines in multiple places in the image. Because this image is made from a combination of visible and infrared light, vegetation on the tip of the Mississippi River delta appears red.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Concentrated patches and streaks of oil appear silvery gray in this high-resolution image of the Gulf of Mexico near the tip of the Mississippi River Delta on May 8, 2010.